Saturday, 20 November 2010

207

So my hands are really shaking a bit due to the excessive amounts of caffeine I'd just ingested so if there are any typo errors, do forgive them.

Mocks are next week and I really haven't done much studying. Shocking I know. And I'm slacking. But like I mentioned in my journal, there is nothing more on the subject that I can say except that I will study harder and do better. Not, study hard and do well. I'm already studying hard (more or less, since we're having weekly tests) but I will study harder, since I badly want to do so well for this second semester, which can make or break me. Melodramatic much? I hear you say, but it is this melodrama that makes me actually sit up, because I know I can do better, as long as I put my mind to it.

Went out to Tesco today, got sidetracked by the Uniball Signo 207 pen which I bought on a whim (despite it being RM 4.90, which I thought was a bit pricey for a pen, but my sis mentioned that she got her Uniball for RM 6 plus at Popular bookstore so this is cheap in comparison) but which again, just like the Pilot Frixion Erasable Pen (RM 5.90, and I only got it for about several months before I realised I'd never use it and then it got itself broken, though I might have made it worse), I wa really disappointed. It was smooth, sure, but the ink was a bit too blue. Obviously, it was a blue pen, but the shade of blue was to the point that, written next to my existing G1 blue pen (which I consider to be the best pen I'd ever used), it made the dark blue ink of my G1 look purple.

Yeah, no kidding. Purple.

So now I know, don't buy pens on a whim. Though it will probably happen again (I'm easily seduced by stationery and books) but now I know better. Research, research, research.

Anyway, yesterday right after class, my dad bought me to NAZA, where we checked out some cars and I fell in love with the Chevrolet Cruze. My dad's (well, mum's, actually, but she doesn't drive it anymore and so my dad took over) Chevrolet Optra is the car I actually admired since it's really spacious in the back (that I can easily stretch out without issue) and it's a really nice, heavy car to drive. But the Chevy Cruze was lovely. Nothing else can properly describe it. They had a black Cruze in the showroom, and while Dad chatted with the dealer, I was running around the car, literally in car heaven.

It looked small from the outside, but it had really good leg room in the back (a must have since I've got really long legs) and the driver's seat was lovely. The doors were heavy, but it had a good solid feel to it. It even had a thingy so that you could drive auto or manual, however you like.

It had wooden panelling along the doors and the dashboard, and the speedometer area was done in such a way that my dad said it resembled that of a sports car. The front passenger's place was lovely, but the glove compartment was half the size of that in my Chevy Optra. The boot was geniusly large. Really, I told Dad that I could easily hide a whole body (maybe two) in the boot without issue. One thing my dad didn't like was how they placed the tools in a mould right under the point the spare tyre would be. They'd be jerked loose after a long while, he said, and it'd be a hassle to remove the spare just to get to them. However, overall it was nice. It looked so understated, so small on the outside, but when you take a look inside, it was really nice and huge. It was such a lovely car, and the shade of black was perfect.

Huh. Maybe they were right; black is slimming.

We then made a U-turn and went to the other side of the road to check out the Peugeot 207, for which we had high hopes of buying. We were sorely disappointed. The design was lovely; sleek and, for the lack of a better word, aerodynamic. But the interior designer should be shot, because it really was very cramped inside. The driver's seat was nice, but once you pushed the car back a bit to accomodate your large frame, you don't have anymore leg room. And the doors weren't solid. They felt a bit too light for me, and when closed, it made a loud THWACK sound instead of the muted THUD you get from the Chevy Cruze.

The boot was large, but what's the point when the back's not spacious enough? And I was such a big fan of Peugeot till now. Then we found out that the 207 was actually an upgrade from the Peugeot 206 hatchback. Gosh.

Afterwards we checked out the Peugeot 407. And for info's sake, people, it's pronounced Poo-zjeo. The second syllable is a bit French accent-y (Duh, it's a French car!) so it's kinda like poo-ju-oh? Something like that. Because some of the people I know (who don't know cars, so I can hardly blame them) pronounce it Malaysian-style: Pew-G-ot. Yeah.

Onward to the 407. It was marginally better than the 207, but it hadn't really regained my confidence back to the French, so looks like I have to stop dreaming of owning a 607 for now. One problem I had with the 407 was that the gear stick was on the other side of the middle bit, meaning it was right next to the passenger's seat. Not a problem ordinarily, but the middle compartment/arm rest was jutting out too much that I literally had to reach over just to grip the gear stick. Like Chris said, not really a bother, since it's automatic, but I'd rather not have it that way.

So yes, this week I let off steam by replaying the piano (which I really need to tune and fix since some of the keys stick - hey, I've had it since I was fix? six?) and I managed to figure out by ear the beginning and main bit of The Battle Narnia, and I'm working on it. Also, I've been rewatching King Arthur (with Clive Owen an Keira Knightley) and I got so inspired by that and Merlin that I've finally figured out a simple but elegant design for my own coat of arms. (The previous ones were equally dashing but had too much detail on them - I'd been focusing too much on having so many royal standards that I lost sight of what I really wanted it to be) and I've been looking for tutorials online on how to draw mythical creatures due to that. So yes, I'm sketching again.

My hands are much too jittery for me to continue typing, and I'm having a bit of problem breathing (can't imagine why, been this way throughout dinner) so I'm gonna stop here for now.